MARTIN LING could barely hide his delight as Orient recorded back-to-back wins for the first time since September with a 1-0 success at London rivals Millwall on Saturday.

The O's moved back level on points with sixth-placed Walsall and Ling believes the result puts his team right back in the mix.

He said: "We've needed back-to-back victories for some time, so it's nice to achieve it as we're coming to the run in because it puts us back in the race again.

"At half-time on Tuesday, people were talking us down - which was fair because we weren't playing very well - but it's been good for the last game-and-a-half, and we've got six points to show for it.

"Defensively today, I'd give us ten out of ten.  As a team we defended for our lives, but on the ball it'd only be a four out of ten for the first half, and maybe a seven for the second half.

"I said to them at half time that they've got four really big defenders, and if we're going to win the game, we're going to have to pass it around them.

"In the first half they were winning every single header, and then passing it better than us, so we needed more invention and we did that a little better after half time.

"But they are a different team to where their league position tells you, and it's an excellent result for us."

Ling said Wayne Gray's decisive 50th minute strike came at the perfect time for the O's and he was pleased to see another JJ Melligan cross lead to a goal.

He continued: "It was an excellent time to score and a strange incident really because it came off the back of [Wayne] Gray charging down the goalkeeper's clearance.

"It looked like it was going in, but it bounced and span back off the line and in the follow up to that move we created a good goal.

"There was good play between JJ Melligan and Jason Demetriou, which led to JJ putting over a great ball for Wayne to finish nicely.

"That's two crosses to two games from JJ that have resulted in goals and that's good for his confidence."

Ling felt Millwall's Marc Laird could have no complaints with the red card he received for a two-footed tackle on Melligan, but he did admit that the visitors got away with what looked like a clear Millwall penalty at the death.

He added: "With the rules as they are nowadays, if you go in two-footed and don't get the ball, you will get sent off.

"It was the correct decision, without doubt, but he did get one wrong when Millwall should have had a penalty late on.

"I don't think we played the situation after they went down to ten men particularly well, but defensively we were spot on."